An Inspector Calls

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Introduction

An Inspector Calls The story of an inspector calls was set in 1945 and was written by J.B Priestly. The story is basically that an inspector comes to investigate a murder and question all of the Birling family to find out who was to blame. In this essay I will compare the three productions of the play the book, film and the stage production. In both the film and the text the scene starts with the Birling's having a civilised conversation at the dinning table. While the stage production there is a more dramatic and mysterious start. First you see the Birling's house which is very high up on the stage which suggests they consider themselves higher and better than everybody else. In the film you can hear every word of the conversation while on the stage production you can only hear the odd word hear and there and the rest is just chatter in the background you can not hear clearly. The way the inspector arrives in the film and book to the stage production is in total contrast. In the stage production the inspector arrives wearing along coat and almost his whole face is covered up by his hat like his was trying to hide his identity and also the ...read more.

Middle

This also makes the Birling's look guiltier in the audience's eyes as they are on the side of the inspector. In the film Sheila had a much more caring voice and shows Sheila actually being laughed at which makes you feel even more sympathetic for her. In all three productions you never really ever feel sorry for Mrs Birling this is because in all three stories she comes across as very uneasy and tries her best in trying not to answer any questions and seems very posh and stuck up and looks down on the inspector and feels he is very rude towards her family. The way they emphases what a kind of a person Mrs Birling is, is by the way she over acts so you get a bad opinion of her. She does though in the stage production have confidence or in her family in that they have done nothing wrong because she is in favour of a public confession. While in the film and book she wants to keep it in the family uncase something is wrong and everyone hears about it. Then next in the stage production normal average poor people poor onto the stage as if they are coming to get the Birlings, Mr Birling takes Sheila and Mrs Birling off the stage leaving Eric there on his own with no way out its Eric's time to confess. ...read more.

Conclusion

The film gives you all the story line and much more easily to understand. If you do know the story well though I think the stage production is the most effective out of the three. It explores different parts of the story that the book and film didn't. I think that Priestly message was he was trying to tell the Birlings what snobs they really were but trying to get into their conciseness and try and make them feel guilty about Eva. The stage production gets this view across better I feel because its clear at the end that Eric and Sheila who were effected by the inspector and now living a better life while the rest of the Birlings are no where to be seen. I think that the film ends to soon and you are not really sure if any good came from it at the end. The book and film is almost the same script. What makes the film better though is how you can see peoples facial expressions, also the music adds to the atmosphere, flashbacks make it more interesting and gives you a better idea of the story to. The stage production does have the edge over these two being more interesting, abstract and makes you think more than the text and film. ...read more.

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